The disclosed embodiments relate generally to methods and systems for printing images on corrugated material.
Corrugated material is customarily used for packaging containers. For example, corrugated boards are typically made of a paper-based construction material and include a fluted corrugated sheet and one or two flat linerboards.
Information, such as assembly instructions, advertising, a manufacturer's name and/or a logo, is often printed on a corrugated board. However, the board's thickness and wavy surface makes high quality printing on it difficult and inexact.
Current techniques for printing on corrugated material include feeding the material through a print station where flexographic printing occurs. The print station includes various flexographic print rollers and die cutter cylinders. The rollers include a reversed raised copy of the image. Each flexographic roller is associated with a different color ink. When the corrugated material is sent through the print station, the rollers rotate over the corrugated material creating an image. Additionally, one or more die cutter cylinders are used to cut the corrugated material so it can later be folded to create a packaging container.
Adjusting the timing of the rollers and the die cutter cylinders is a time and labor intensive process. Each flexographic roller needs to be manually positioned or timed to place its image in proper registration to the other colors or images. Determining a precise location for each roller is typically performed using an iterative process to ensure both proper placement of the image on the corrugated material and proper color blending between the images produced by each roller. Additionally, the die cutter cylinders must be manually repositioned or timed in order to properly cut the corrugated material.